Co-commissioned by National Theatre Wales and 14-18 NOW, WWI Centenary Art Commissions, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

This large-scale, site-specific production performed in an ancient woodland near Usk, Monmouthshire, will give audiences a vivid glimpse into life – and death – in the trenches and battlefields of the Somme.

Inspired by Welsh writer Owen Sheers’ poem Mametz Wood, it will draw on written material by the poets who fought in or witnessed one of the war’s bloodiest conflicts – the Battle of Mametz Wood, in which 4,000 of the the 38th (Welsh) Division were killed or wounded. Among the soldiers who took part were several key Welsh and English war poets, including Robert Graves, David Jones, Siegfried Sassoon and Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, and Sheers’ own great, great uncle, William Cross.